[Grandmaster]

How about a historical Amazon running her sword through a retreating Greek, with the female on the right side (denoting victory/attack), and the male on the left in a lower position (denoting defeat)…?

[Grandmaster]

…Her homepage (in German): http://www.rahel-ruch.ch/

Classy and professional! 8)

[Grandmaster]

Meanwhile Timmy, waiting for his turn on the monkey bars, hits puberty seven years too early. ;D

[Grandmaster]

All of what you say does have merit, as in regards to not treating the subject (genre?) purely as a fetish interest in the creative process.  However, that being said, when anyone does remove the sexualized fetish from the concept of femuscle, well – the appalling lack of expressed interest by those that should be supportive is nearly deafening.  This is especially apparent in story writing and to a lesser degree with certain types of the artworks posted here.  It’s almost as if the majority who do have an interest in the idea of strong, powerfully built women aren’t at all interested in a purely fantasy-fiction / adventure format, only ones that involves a powerful sexualization of the subject matter.

I didn't think I was the only who noticed this, but think I understand why it doesn't come up here. 😉

I'm curious to know if you think that whether or not one is more interested in muscle women sexually than heroically(?) has anything to do with what context that individual first comes across them. If the "first sighting" has a fetishistic/sexual connotation, do you think a person is more likely to gravitate to more of the same rather than anything "tamer" (which seems to be less common anyway)?

[Grandmaster]

Hey all! I had an idea I'd like to put out for brainstorming: how does one get a buff and busty superheroine taken seriously by comic book readers?

Stop fetishizing muscles! A story has to have something going on in the narrative besides how buff the character is. If the creator is fetishizing his own creation, naturally the reader/viewer will follow his lead. That's the power of art. How much muscle the characters have should not be a plot device. Stop drawing figures in overtly sexual positions (worm-eye POV shots of crotches and butts). No characters with "do me" facial expressions and commentary (assuming they are not being "done"). No clothing that over-emphasizes female attributes in your illustrations (low cut shirts and butt floss are not as common in women's daily attire as men would hope)–keep it realistic and relevant to real life, not what's realistic and relevant in porn and the gentleman's clubs).

Learn to illustrate heroic poses and body language. Develop characterizations that are not based on the character's sexuality. "Sexuality" is not the same thing as gender–a mistake a lot of creators make. A female character can be sexual, but if her image invites one to wonder what she looks like f*cking rather what she's thinking about, you're headed the wrong way.

Don't do anything to a female character that you wouldn't do to a male character. Yes, both a female superhero and a male superhero can be captured by their nemeses and tied up, but if you wouldn't draw the male superhero with his balls compressed to epic proportions by his restraints because that's not "sexy" to you, what reason is there to do the same to the female superhero's breasts, if you're intention is not to say, "Look at these puppies!"? That is hard to take seriously.

Is there a way to have one's cake and eat it too? To tell a thought provoking, entertaining, humorous story AND have your main character look like she could take a tank apart with her bare hands AND be busty?

Of course there is, but the story has to actually be all of the things you mention, and that can happen only by developing one's craft. (Let someone whose intelligence you trust read your work–if they don't find it funny, then it's most likely not.) It's not necessarily bust size that precludes female characters from being taken seriously, it's that there's often nothing else going on in their stories to engage people, so that's what people latch onto. So to speak. 😉

[Grandmaster]

Kim Klein and Adela Garcia don't need costumes to be super-heroines! They already have the power to make me want to bang my head into a brick wall repeatedly.

The Manion family mantra.

???

[Grandmaster]

the funny thing is at that size you can see all the goofs I did, like on the Aisha one the back of her suit is not colored on the butt part…

Shhhh!!!! ;D

[Grandmaster]

I like the gray girl's design (the clothing and color scheme). 

[Grandmaster]

Thanks for the lead to the hidden stuff–the larger pieces are great for looking at (duh) and appreciating what you're doing…"Aisha" and "Buffness" are my faves of these selections. Still have some digging into the rest of your site to do!

[Grandmaster]

¿Qué mayas? No veo ninguna mayas… 😮

[Author]

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